I cannot put into words what a pleasure today turned out to be.
I had not planned on taking pictures or videos, but it was one of those days where the kids were just blowing my mind. The class was filled with energy as they were designing, evaluating, and changing their codes to include new and creative ideas… all while having a great time.
There is nothing better than sitting back and just enjoying the kids enjoying learning.
Watching students go through our coding curriculum over the past 2 months, I can personally see why computer programming has a reputation for increasing academic ability and test scores. Yes, it is full of math and logical thinking…. but more that that, it teaches perseverance. I know my own children prefer to get the correct answer the first time they attempt something and they'd like that answer to come to them preferably in under 2 seconds flat (as not to waste their valuable time, lol). Most students want the same thing. To answer quickly, and then of course, for their answer to have been brilliant. Computer programming does the exact opposite! When students program, they are wrong just as much as they are right and over time they become okay with it. One of our class mottos is "mistakes are okay," and computer programming definitely reinforces that concept. The fear of failure limits how much they are willing to put themselves out there. Working as a computer programmer, they learn to be wrong A LOT.
In computer programming, this process of being wrong and then working to fix it is called "debugging". When the algorithm the students map out does not bring the desired or intended results in the program, students have to look back into the code they created and find the mistake, correct (or debug) it, and then evaluate if that truly fixed the problem or not. Sometimes it takes repeating this process several times before determining the correct solution. As a past science teacher-- this is the scientific method 101; however, coding does something more for the students. I have never been able to convince students to fully accept their failures as learning or be patient enough to want to evaluate what went wrong and/or fix the problem. The coding curriculum is teaching students to slow down, think logically, and correct their mistakes without taking it personally. Taking it one step further, my students are gaining confidence! They are realizing that making a mistake is a small bump in the road that they can easily fix with a little effort and working through their "failures" is giving them a sense of pride in their own abilities and accomplishments.
To call today a "win" doesn't quite measure up to the success I'm so excited about. Today was most definitely a win! But I'm more excited to watch children gain life skills that will help them in any area they want to pursue. Being able to problem solve ( in such a way that shows perseverance and sticking with a task until completion), think critically and meaningfully, gain confidence in their ability to handle and overcome perceived failure, and to have fun while doing it…shows me they are building on the skills they will need to be successful in life and tackle any profession their heart desires-- Now THAT'S exciting!
The video above is from code.org where the last 10 min. of class we created a flappy code. If you are a fan of the "flappy bird"app then you know it is extremely hard to score points and stay alive more than 4 seconds. The Flappy Code coding game allows students to create their own rules to play the game. Many of my students had a great time making up rules that would allow them to get points no matter what they did. Even more amazing, on level 10, students find out that they are then able to share the game they made and play it on their iPhone or send it to friends! Talk about correlating coding to the real world! I give you 10 stars for this one, code.org. HUGE success! :)
Here are the links to their accounts again:
1st grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/GPKBPV
2nd grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/MSRDON
3rd grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/MAWNES
4th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/NEVJUK
5th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/QUIXLW
6th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/UWZETY
7th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/IFPQIW
8th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/NUWKEY
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